Inu is a victim of political vendetta: JSD
JSD rejects the verdict, calling it politically motivated.
The court has sentenced Hasanul Haq Inu, president of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), or National Socialist Party, and a former information minister, to 10 years in prison on each of three charges in a ‘crimes against humanity' case linked to the July Mass Uprising. Rejecting the verdict, JSD held a protest rally and demonstration and claimed that the court’s ruling was politically motivated.
On Tuesday, the JSD Metropolitan Committee organized a protest procession that started in front of the Education Building and marched through roads in the Press Club, Topkhana, Paltan, and Zero Point areas before concluding in a rally in front of the party’s central office.
Addressing the rally, speakers said the verdict against Hasanul Haq Inu was nothing more than an act of political vengeance. They alleged that following the change in political power on August 5, 2024, the Yunus government misused its authority and reversed the role of the tribunal that had been established to try the perpetrators of the 1971 war crimes. They described the trial of freedom fighter Hasanul Haq Inu in that tribunal as a farce.
They said Hasanul Haq Inu had played a leading and courageous role in the struggle for independence and the Liberation War that led to the establishment of independent Bangladesh. For that reason, they claimed, he had become the target of political retaliation.
Claiming that the allegations were not substantiated even in the court’s verdict, the speakers said authorities had assigned Inu responsibility under the doctrine of ‘superior command responsibility’, even though he did not hold the position of minister, member of parliament, or any administrative office at the time. They said he exercised no control over any state law enforcement agency, including the police, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), or the military. They also alleged that the prosecution had failed to establish even minimal involvement by Hasanul Haq Inu in the killing of six people in Kushtia.
Mir Hossain Akhtar, coordinator of the Metropolitan Committee, presided over the rally. JSD Central Committee Vice President and freedom fighter Shafi Uddin Molla, Standing Committee Member and freedom fighter Saifuzzaman Badsha, Joint General Secretaries Afzal Hossain Khan Joki, Shawkat Raihan, Noimul Ahsan Jewel, Obaidur Rahman Chunnu, Mirza Md. Anwarul Haq, Jubo Jote President Shariful Kabir Swapan, General Secretary Shariful Islam Sujon, Bangladesh Chhatra League (Scientific Socialism) Central Parliament President Rashidul Haq Noni, and other leaders of JSD and its affiliated organizations also addressed the gathering.
